Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category

  • Chris Garrett

    Chris Garrett is a blogging, new media and online marketing consultant living in the UK. More

  • Ryan Caldwell

    For our first I Heart Blogs Interview I’m glad that Ryan Caldwell has decided to answer some questions.

    Ryan Caldwell is a full time Internet Professional who blogs at Performancing.com and College-Startup.com and also helps run a number of successful pop-culture websites like PopCrunch.

    Q) How long have been blogging?
    A) I’ve been blogging for about 3 years. I blogged under various pseudonyms on dozens of sites while still in college. I recently made the decision to go into SEO and blogging full time and the payoff has been huge (in contrast to doing it as a part time thing).

    Q) What first got you interested in blogging?
    A) Like everyone else, I was enamored with the joint ideas of writing about what I loved and also generating passive income. Of course the passive income idea is just a pipe dream. But now that I know what to do to generate money online, I don’t mind the work involved;-)

    Q) What is Peformancing.com?
    A) Performancing is an organic community of bloggers and Internet professionals who help each other succeed. As they say, two are better than one, and in the case of Performancing you might say that hundreds of people are better than one. Helping one another online is not a zero sum game. Everyone wins.

    Q) How can I (as a blogger) benefit from Peformancing?
    A) In many ways. There are several successful bloggers who write daily tips based on their experiences. There is no advice like the straight-up, honest advice of people who have found success, but made many mistakes along the way. In addition to the daily tips that we provide, we also have a live, real-time streaming statistics program called pMetrics that lets bloggers see, in real time, what visitors to the blog are doing. This helps the blogger to make changes to his or her template to better focus traffic in the right direction.

    Besides pMetrics, we have a paid private forum called Hive that lets newer bloggers network with expert bloggers, get help with promoting and improving their sites, learn insider tips and strategies for getting exposure, etc.

    Q) How many blogs do you run?
    A) I manage over 50 blogs. I personally write on three.

    Q) What does your typical blogging day look like?
    A) Most of my day is spent networking and managing. I spend very little time writing. I have five full time employees at this point and a few part time employees. Most of my time is spent helping develop linkbait ideas, and delegating work to get done. Plus I love brainstorming on AIM with my friends about the next great Internet scheme.

    Q) When visiting a new blog what are the most important factors that will make you visit it again?
    A) Engaging, useful information. I usually browse the latest 3-4 posts. If they are any good, I stick around. However, I won’t even bother looking at the latest 3-4 posts if I the AdSense blocks grab my attention more than the content.

    Q) What is your favorite method for promoting a blog?
    A) My favorite method is to develop a unique, ultra-high quality resource, and then to email similarly themed blogs and websites telling them about the resource.

    Q) Which of the many social networking/bookmarking/news sites drive the most traffic to your blogs?
    A) Well, in the short term, clearly Digg has the most bang for the buck. And if you catch the attention of someone in Mainstream Media via Digg, you’ll also get the most long term traffic from a digg bait too. However, I’m finding that the Stumble/Reddit combination is much easier, much less rigid regarding content shaping (don’t have to cater to a particular audience as much), and equally as powerful in driving traffic. Plus, the traffic is much more targeted. So unless I have a great article, I don’t even bother with digg anymore because I’m satisfied with the long term trickle of traffic that the Stumble/Reddit combo provides

    Q) what is the biggest mistake you’ve made when promoting your blogs?
    A) Relying on social media alone. You really need to spend the first 3 months networking and participating in the major online communities of your niche.

    Q) What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone starting a new blog?
    A) Don’t write a monologue. Be part of a conversation. Engage other bloggers. Write well-researched articles.

    Q) Where do you see the yourself and Performancing going in the next year.
    A) We have plans to launch an ad network for bloggers that rewards quality blogs while simultaneously being advertiser centric (giving the advertiser useful data for making wise advertising decisions). Stay tuned for that. We also hope to unveil some exciting tools that will make bloggers happy. You’ll probably see a nice redesign too;-)

    Thank you Ryan for being our first interviewee at I Heart Blogs, sounds like you’ll be busy over the next year, best wishes.

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